


The thing about radiation...

by wildwaveswhist



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fever, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Parker Whump, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Tony Stark, Spider Bite, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24328873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildwaveswhist/pseuds/wildwaveswhist
Summary: So Peter had a hypothesis about it.The episodes, he'd admit, were Not Fun, but he'd googled it and they were probably nothing. Just his body growing, his DNA mutating. An inconvenient side-effect of being a friendly neighbourhood, spider-themed vigilante, with an undetermined and probably unhealthy amount of radiation bouncing round in his genetic code.It was really, honestly, no big deal. Really. Everything was fine.(Unfortunately for Peter, Tony didn't seem to agree.)
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Peter Parker, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 277





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A few things to address:  
> \- Do I currently have a WIP? Yes, yes I do.  
> \- Am I currently working on that WIP? Yes, yes I am, but a friend sent me a prompt and I hate to disappoint, so. Yeah.  
> \- Is this basically an excuse for some shameless Peter Parker Whump and Caring Father Figure Tony? Yes, yes it is.  
> I hope that explains it.  
> Kudos, comments, blah blah blah, you guys know the drill.  
> (Seriously though, your comments never fail to make my day and feedback on my writing is always much appreciated).  
> Enjoy. :)

So Peter had a hypothesis about it.

The first time it happened was the day after Homecoming, and honestly, it scared the shit out of him. 

OK, so technically that wasn’t true. If you wanted to be all nit-picky about it, the first time was actually after the school trip to Oscorp. But that one didn’t count. Not “officially”, anyway. He usually used it as the control, the measure he could compare every other episode to, if only so he could say ‘this one’s bad, but at least it’s not as bad as _that_ one was’.

The _first_ first time, after Oscorp, the mutation lasted a little over two days. Ben and May told him afterwards that those were the most terrifying two days of their lives, but fortunately he spent them either completely blacked out, or delirious enough not to remember the worst parts.

The second time, he was conscious for each and every awful second. 

At first, he thought it was just the aftermath of the battle with Toomes. Once he knew Happy had retrieved both the Vulture and the cargo that had survived the crash, Peter had limped back to the apartment, showered away the blood and sand and the smell of smoke, and then immediately passed out on his bed, vaguely aware of feeling a little...off. May had woken him before she left for work the next morning, asking if the plan was Disney or horror for the movie night later on, before pressing a hand worriedly against his forehead. 

Half asleep, Peter had batted the hand away, saying he was  _ fine May, really, I don’t need you to stay home,  _ because he was, and he didn’t, because Spider-Man didn’t get sick. He hadn't had so much as a sniffle since the beginning.

An hour later, it started. 

It was the spider bite all over again. The same nausea, some invisible hand grabbing hold of his stomach and clenching until he had heaved everything up, leaving him drained and gasping. 

And then, the  pain, the feeling of being burned alive from the inside out, starting at the base of his spine before spreading through his entire body. While his insides boiled, his skin froze over, every one of his senses jumping into overdrive, bombarding him with sounds and smells and blinding light and making him see things that weren't there, fire, and shrapnel, and icy waves threatening to pull him away. 

He remembered how the two pinprick scars on his wrist had once again started to sting, remembered thinking through his fevered haze that maybe this was it. Maybe his powers were disappearing, maybe he had messed up too badly on the ferry. Maybe this was the world deciding that Spider-Man wasn’t needed anymore. 

Mercifully, it only lasted four hours. By the time it was over, the injuries from the battle had nearly healed.  More importantly, though, he was still Spider-Man. He hadn’t “un-mutated”, his powers hadn’t vanished. He went right back out on patrol that afternoon, and if anything he felt stronger, his senses more precise.

It had happened three more times since then, usually after some serious shit went down and he came out of it a little worse for wear. He'd be struck by that same burning agony, the same terror that this episode might be the one that took everything away - and then the same relief a few hours later when it was over, the pain stopping as suddenly as it had started. 

OK, it sounded bad, but really, it was no big deal. May and Tony didn’t need to know, because it was nothing. Really.

Anyway. His hypothesis. 

The spider bite had some awesome and some… not-so-awesome effects on his biology. You couldn’t have everything, after all. Sure, he could lift a school bus one-handed, he could hear a bank being robbed a mile away, but he also had problems with thermo-regulation (always a delight to deal with in the winter), and apparently he sometimes slept with his eyes open (which, after some extensive googling, he and Ned concluded must be something to do with the  _ so very gross  _ fact that spiders don’t have eyelids).

So yeah. The episodes were probably just one of the  _ very _ -not-awesome effects of what happened, maybe the equivalent of when spiders shed their skin or something. It was just his body growing, his DNA mutating, bouncing back after he took a particularly bad hit. An inconvenient side-effect of being a friendly neighbourhood, spider-themed vigilante, with an undetermined amount of radiation bouncing round in his genetic code.

That was his theory, anyway.

As of yet, he’d never been able to confirm it, but it wasn’t as if he could go to a hospital and ask them to run some tests. And it was fine. It was really, honestly no big deal. He could handle it - and so far, thank god, he had pulled off the minor miracle of doing so without anybody else finding out.

But, as he already well knew, you couldn’t have everything. And, as he _also_ already well knew, Tony Stark was an extremely difficult man to hide a secret from.

* * *

If there was one thing Tony hoped he’d be rewarded with after, y’know, saving the universe, it was a full night of sleep. 

Apparently, though, preventing the violent destruction of only one reality fell just short of the mark for that. 

_ “Boss?” _ F.R.I.D.A.Y said, for the third time.

“Yeah, m’up.” 

With a groan, Tony rolled over and looked at his watch with bleary eyes. 

God, it was early. Monstrously early. He hadn’t seen a time this early since Morgan started sleeping through the night. 

_ “Sorry to wake you -” _

“Yeah, sure you are.”

_ “- but Mr Parker seems to be in distress.” _

Tony choked on a breath, suddenly very wide awake. 

“The kid?”

_ “Yes, boss.” _

He sat up, ignoring the post-battle ache that still lingered in his  _ everywhere _ as he threw off the covers and got out of bed, stumbling in the dark and slapping the wall in search of the light switch. 

“What’s wrong with him?” 

_ “I am...unsure.” _

He threw an accusatory glare at the ceiling.  “I coded you to do better than unsure.”

_ “I'm running scans, but they haven't been able to determine the cause of Mr Parker's symptoms.” _

In the back of his mind, he was vaguely aware of Pepper calling after him as he all but  sprinted  out of the door, but the panic was blocking out almost everything else. 

He cursed, stumbling to a halt at the end of the hallway as he realised he had no idea how to get to Peter’s room. He knew his way around the recently re-bought Avengers Tower (he had designed the damn thing) but it was  _ far _ too fucking early and the building currently housed so many people while they recovered from the battle with Thanos that he had somehow lost track of where the kid ended up. 

“F.R.I?”

_ “Room 34C. Straight on, then to the right.” _

He half-walked, half-ran the rest of the way, not bothering to knock when he reached Peter’s room. 

He burst through the door, and a breath got trapped in his throat. 

The kid wasn’t in his bed. 

Shit. The kid wasn’t anywhere.

_ No. No no no. Not again. _

“This better not be a prank, Parker.”

Spinning in a circle, he looked up at the ceiling (which, in the kid’s case, was always an important spot to check) and down under the bed, before he noticed a thin strip of light coming from inside the bathroom. He threw the door open, just managing to catch it before it hit the figure huddled on the ground inside.

_ Shit. _

Peter was sat doubled over with his back against the tiled wall, both arms wrapped tightly around his midsection. His forehead was pressed against one bent knee, but even from the strange angle Tony could see the paleness of his skin, the pained grimace twisting his face. 

“Kid?!”

Peter flinched, his whole body jerking.

“Pete -  _ shit _ , what - what happened, what’s wrong?”

This wasn’t happening. This  _ couldn’t  _ be happening.

Tony knelt down and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, drawing back slightly when he felt how hot the skin underneath his fingers was. The kid was burning up, heat radiating off him, making the air in the bathroom humid and stuffy.

_This couldn’t be happening._

For a moment, Tony was frozen, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. Peter had come out of the battle with a few bumps and bruises, sure, but it was nothing his healing factor couldn’t handle. Tony had checked. He had checked, double checked, and then practically held the kid down while every medical professional he could wrangle for two minutes checked and double checked again. 

_ How was this happening? _

“Kid?”

Peter just groaned, hands clutching at the fabric of his shirt. 

“F.R.I, get Banner. Now.”

_ “He’s already on his way.” _

Peter let out a pained noise of protest, looking up at Tony with glazed eyes.  “Don’t.” 

Tony put a hand to Peter’s cheek, his fingers slipping on skin slick with sweat. 

“Kid, what’s going on?”

“M’just - ”

Peter broke off with a gasp, curling even tighter into himself. 

“Pete?!”  _ This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening.  _ “C’mon, help me out here, what happened?”

Peter lifted his head, pressing it against the wall and squeezing his eyes shut with a groan.

“Kid, talk to me!”

“M’sorry,” Peter mumbled. “Told F.R.I not to - ”

He cut off with a choked cry, doubling over again and slipping sideways down the wall. 

Tony caught him, supporting him with both hands on his shoulders while he searched wildly for what was wrong, but there was nothing. No blood, no broken bones, just a fever Tony could tell was _far too fucking high_ , limbs that trembled and flinched away from his touch.

“Pete, c’mon.”  _ This couldn’t be happening, not again, this couldn’t be happening _ . “You gotta tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’ll stop - just - m-mutating, don’t -”

Peter struggled, pushing himself out of Tony’s grip. For a moment, Tony held on, terrified that if he let go Peter would crumble back into dust and all of this, everything they had been through, would have been for nothing.

But then Peter’s hand wrapped around the pipe under the sink, and the metal folded beneath his fingers like tissue paper.

“Christ,” Tony said, drawing back. “Yeah, OK, super strength, gotcha.” 

“Sorry,” Peter said, his voice hoarse. “But...m’fine.”

“Kid, this is not fine. This is the furthest thing from fine.”

“It’s  _ fine,”  _ Peter said again, water dribbling down to his elbow as the pipe came apart in his fist. “Just...go, it’ll stop - ”

“You’re joking, right? I’m not just gonna - ”

Tony was cut off when the bathroom door opened. Bruce entered the room, squeezing his thankfully no longer so enormous frame (apparently the Hulk was  _ taking it easy for a while,  _ whatever that meant) into the limited space behind him.

“Tony?”

“Bruce, it’s - it’s the kid, I don’t know what’s wrong -”

Bruce knelt down beside them, gently pushing Tony out of the way and touching Peter’s forehead with his undamaged hand.

“Peter? Can you hear me?”

Peter cringed at Bruce's touch, but nodded stiffly.

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

“N-no.”

“Are you sick?”

Shaking his head, Peter moaned and curled into himself again, his breathing ragged and shallow.

“He doesn’t get sick,” Tony supplied.

Bruce turned round to look at him, brow furrowed.

“Doesn’t get sick? Are you sure?”

“Well, that’s what he told me. Something about a super-powered immune system.”

“Any injuries from the battle?”

“He - yeah, a few, but he’s enhanced, he heals faster than Rogers.” 

_ Tony checked, he made sure. This couldn’t be happening. _

Bruce clicked his tongue. “Uh...is he allergic to anything?”

“I don't - no, I don’t think so.”

“Who’s he been in contact with?”

“Uh, I guess - I don’t know, everybody? He was on search and rescue with Steve - ”

“Do you know if anything like this has happened before?” 

“No, nothing - ”

“Did he come in contact with the stones?”

“He carried the gauntlet for a bit, before Thor got to it.”

“Do you know of anything else that might -”

“Christ, if I knew I wouldn’t be freaking out right now, would I?”

Tony hit his hand against the wall, his yell echoing hollowly off the tiles. Peter let out a pained groan.

Shit. He needed to get a grip. 

“I don’t know,” Tony said, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I found him like this. He said something - uh, something about mutating.”

“Mutating,” Bruce muttered.  His eyes widened in realisation.  “Radioactive, right?”

Tony blinked, brain lagging a few seconds behind. 

“Uh, yeah. Spider. Radioactive one.”

Bruce whirled back around, his voice suddenly filled with urgency.

“Pete? Peter?!”  He gave Peter’s shoulder a firm shake.  “Has this happened before, kid?”

Peter lifted his head. "Mm. Yeah."

“More than once? Since you got your powers?”

Another affirmative groan, and Bruce cursed, standing up off the floor.

“What?” Tony said. “What is it?”

Bruce didn’t reply, instead lifting Peter with one arm and carrying him out of the bathroom. Peter let out a sob as he was put down on the bed, the sheets getting twisted in his legs as he rolled over in discomfort. 

Tony stood beside him, suddenly finding himself out of the loop and not liking it  _ at all.  _ He put his hands on Peter’s shoulders to distract himself from how they were shaking, watching Bruce root around in the bag he had brought with him. 

“Spill.  _ Now _ . Please.”

“I’ll explain later.” Bruce took a needle out of the bag and attached it to a syringe. “Hold him still.”

“Huh?”

“I need a blood sample, hold him still.”

Running mostly on autopilot, Tony allowed himself to follow the order. He grabbed hold of one of Peter’s arms and turned it over to expose the vein, holding firm as Peter tried to struggle away. 

"Sorry, kid."

Another shudder tore through Peter’s body as Bruce inserted the needle into his skin. He gasped quietly, every muscle rigid and trembling.

“S-stop.”

“It’s alright,” Tony soothed, brushing away matted hair and very determinedly  _ not  _ looking at the syringe as it filled with blood. “It’ll be over in a sec.”

_ God, please let it be over in a sec.  _

After filling not one, but three damn syringes, Bruce moved away and put them into his bag before heading for the door.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“What?” Tony was torn, wanting to follow but also finding himself physically incapable of leaving the kid’s side. “Wait! Aren't there any painkillers in there, Miss Poppins?"

"If his metabolism is anything like Steve's, he'll just burn off anything we give him," Bruce said. "It'll be over in a few hours."

"What am I meant to do 'til then?!"

“Just, uh, stay with him.”

“And if he passes out or something?”

Bruce paused, tapping his fingers on the door frame.

“Yes. Passing out. Actively encourage that.”

And then he was gone. Tony turned back to Peter, who had stopped writhing and was now curled on his side, sweating and shaking and sucking in deep, laboured breaths.

“Mis’r Stark?”

“Yeah, kid, I’m here.”

“M’sorry,” Peter mumbled through gritted teeth. “I didn’t...didn’t want you to...”

“Hey, it’s OK. Just focus on me. You’re gonna be alright.”

Peter met his gaze for a moment before he allowed his face to crumple, tears spilling over.

“Hurts.”

“I know, I know,” Tony soothed, hoping his voice didn’t betray the fact he very much  _ did not know,  _ and in fact had  _ absolutely no idea  _ what was happening. “Bruce’ll fix it, it’ll be OK. I’m not losing you again, Parker. The world needs Spider-Man back.”

“You sh-shouldn’t...be here.”

“Nowhere I’d rather be.”

“But...Morgan.”

“She’s four years old, and it’s three in the morning. She’s off having fun in dreamland.”

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but then grimaced and drew in a ragged gasp. Tightening his arms around his chest, he squeezed his eyes shut against another wave of pain.

“It’s alright, Pete, breathe.”

“It really hurts, sir - I can’t - ”

“Yes, you can. You’re Spider-Man, you got this.”

“What if - I -  _ god - ”  _

The kid jerked, rolling onto his back with a cry. One of his hands smacked against the wall, a red smudge marking the dent it left behind, blood beading up on his knuckles.

Tony gritted his teeth, bracing himself and engaging the gauntlet in his watch. He reached out and caught Peter’s hand as it flailed in the air, trying not to worry about it when he felt the nanobot layer give slightly under the kid’s grip.

“Want...May. Please. I need May.”

Tony swallowed. “We’ll find her, alright? You and me, as soon as this is over.”

“M’sorry. I’m sorry, sir, I’m sorry - ”

_ I don’t wanna go, please, sir. _

_ I’m sorry. _

“Nothing to be sorry for, kid,” Tony said, grateful Peter was too delirious to notice how those words took the air right out of him. “Just - just breathe, with me."

Peter’s eyes flickered up to meet his. “I c’n do it…’lone.”

“But you’re not alone." Tony gave Peter's hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not going anywhere. And neither are you.”

* * *

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt?”

It was fair to say Tony had a practised poker face, but he had to admit, this one was a challenge. 

He left the room for ten minutes.  Ten  fucking minutes, after spending _hours_ at Peter’s side, somehow managing not to freak out while the kid cried and writhed and then fell into what very much resembled a fucking coma, staying with him while he lay still and silent and pale as death. 

But of course, it was in the ten minutes he was gone that Peter decided to return to the land of the living. He and Bruce looked up in surprise as he walked in, pausing the apparently very casual conversation they had been having in his absence. 

“No, please, don’t mind me,” Tony said, leaning against the door frame. "Carry on."

“Tony -”

“Mr Stark -”

“You OK?” Tony asked, folding his arms and looking pointedly at Peter. 

The kid bit his lip and nodded.

“Good. Then you can answer my question. What the fuck was that?”

Peter glanced nervously at Bruce, shifting and wincing in a way that might have made Tony feel a little guilty, were it not for the volatile concoction of confusion and exhaustion brewing inside him.

Bruce gave Peter a grim smile. “Do you wanna tell him, kid, or shall I?”

“I don’t care who does it,” Tony cut in. “But will one of you please explain to me what the fuck is going on because I can’t - I literally cannot cope with this.”

Peter looked at Bruce, desperation in his eyes. 

“Yeah, OK,” Bruce sighed. 

Tony sat himself down on the desk opposite Peter's bed, fixing them both with what he knew was his most piercing glare.

“So, uh...well, the good news is it’s not gonna happen again.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. “Well, that’s just fantastic. Oh, happy day. Shall we break out the champagne?”

“Tony.”

Bruce’s voice was quiet, but the warning in it was clear. Tony glanced over at the kid, noticing the dark circles under his eyes, the slight tension in his shoulders that suggested some of the pain still lingered. 

“Right. OK...right, if that’s the good news, what’s the bad?”

Bruce’s brow furrowed, and he clasped his hands together. “I’ll, uh, try to put in English.”

“The kid’s a genius, Banner, you can talk science in front of him.”

Bruce laughed sheepishly. “Actually, I meant for you. Peter seems to have done his reading and this is, uh, our  _ particular _ area of expertise.”

Tony blinked, looking between the two of them.  “What, is there some sort of gamma-bros club I don’t know about?”

A weak smile flickered on the kid's face, and Bruce chuckled.

“Unfortunately not, but we should definitely start one of those," he said. "So, uh, you’re obviously aware of how Peter got his powers. His specific and frankly ridiculously lucky set of DNA, plus spider venom, plus a splash of radiation, and boom, you got yourself a vigilante.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard it from the vigilante himself,” Tony said. 

Bruce hummed. “Did the vigilante himself tell you about the mutation period?”

Tony hesitated. The short answer was yes, Peter had told him. The _ honest _ answer was yes, Peter had let it slip very briefly and then got very uncomfortable, and Tony had, out of what he insisted was nothing more than professional curiosity, asked his aunt for the details. And then wished he hadn't.

“It came up,” he said finally, May’s account of  _ impossibly high fevers  _ and  _ screaming in pain  _ stirring in his memory. “But Peter’s all levelled-up now, right? Or are you due to grow another four limbs?”

Peter huffed a laugh, but Tony noticed the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Normally, the kid would play along, quip right back at him, but right now he was tense, watching him intently but then refusing to make eye contact whenever Tony glanced his way.

Bruce sighed. “The thing about radiation is it’s...well, it’s unstable. That’s kind of its whole deal. The initial mutation period was the start of Peter’s powers, but it wasn’t the end.”

Tony suddenly started to feel a little ill. 

“I went through a similar thing, after my accident. After the initial changes happened, there were several other, smaller mutation phases, usually triggered by a high stress event. The immune system goes into overdrive and tries to prepare the body for the next time something happens.”

Tony’s jaw clenched. “And I assume dying, then un-dying, then fighting in the biggest battle in human history would count as high-stress?” 

Bruce nodded, eyes flicking momentarily to look at Peter. “We can assume so, yeah. The fact Peter came into prolonged contact with the six most radioactive objects in the universe probably didn’t help things, either. But don’t worry, I managed to develop a way to stabilise my DNA, stop it mutating any more than it already had. It should be quite easy to adapt it to match Peter’s genetics. It’ll need a few rounds of injections, plus a booster any time something...you know,  _ high-stress,  _ happens again, but we should be able to stop any more episodes from happening.”

“Just, uh, quick rewind,” Tony said, looking pointedly at Peter. “Exactly how many episodes have  _ already  _ happened?”

Peter looked down at his hands. “That was number five.”

There was a pause. Tony swallowed, took a breath, forcing down the reaction he wanted to come out with.

“Wanna expand on that?”

“Well, I guess it’s technically number six, if you count the initial phase,” Peter rambled, watching him nervously. “But I usually just...you know, ignore that. The time after the thing with the Vulture was the first smaller episode like this, and then the second was after I fought the Rhino, you know, the guy with the - ”

“Wait, wait, wait, just - hold on,” Tony said, holding up a hand. “This has been happening during the time you’ve known me? Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

“I just...I don’t know. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

“A big deal? Are you kidding me? I came in here and found you  _ dying,  _ Pete, how the hell can you - ”

“I wasn’t  _ dying _ .”

“It sure fucking looked like it!”

“Look, I know I should have told someone, b ut I just...you know, I thought it was weird Spider-Man stuff that no-one needed to know about.”

“For fuck’s sake, kid! Does May know?”

“Of course not! I already worry her enough as it is, I wasn’t gonna give her another reason to - ”

“So what, you just crawl into a hidey-hole whenever this happens and ride it out alone?”

“Yes! Obviously!”

Bruce moved forwards, holding up a hand between them.  “Maybe we should all just take a minute and - ”

“No, I’m not gonna take a minute,” Tony yelled. “I’ve taken more than enough minutes, stood here watching you, watching - watching  _ that _ , happening, and not knowing what it was, or how to fix it - ”

“It’s fine, Mr Stark - ”

“Oh, that sounds familiar. You said that earlier, right, while you were dying?”

“Tony, that’s not what he - ”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Tony said, striding around Banner and yanking open the door. “You heard the kid. It’s fine. It’s all just fine.”

With that, he walked out and slammed the door shut behind him. 

He needed sleep, and food. He needed to see his daughter, and though it tore him up inside, he needed to not think about this, not think about how Peter had cried in his arms, not think about his voice calling his name behind him as he walked away.

Shit. This wasn't how he wanted this to go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, he knew it was a shitty thing to do, and yes, he felt extremely shitty for doing it.   
> But it had taken Tony five years to get over the last time he had held a crying Peter in his arms like that, and it would probably take him just as long this time too.   
> Except this time, Peter was still here.

Tony had made a lot of progress in the last five years.

It took some time, he’d admit. For a while, after the dust had settled - after the waves of loss had rippled away and life had stilled to a hollow sort of peace, like a river brought to a halt and left to stand, silent and stagnant - for a while after that, Tony had settled too. Allowed himself to sink, numb, as the world desperately tried to keep itself afloat around him.

But then, a few months later, two pink lines broke the surface.

The river started running again, each kick and nudge he felt when he put a hand to Pepper’s belly a ripple that burst out into his existence, giving him a breath of air, a lifeline that dredged him up out of his grief. Helped him carry it, the hope of a child on the way buoying up the pain of the child he had lost. 

Morgan arrived, and then Tony got off his ass.

Yeah, he’d made progress, and yeah, he’d say he was proud. Not just of the obvious changes, but the smaller ones too. The ones very few people saw, but had taken a lot more effort. The ones he made for her.

He went to therapy. Learned how to recognise his emotions, how to control negative thoughts. Learned it was important to ask for help when he needed it, and to not be afraid to show affection, vulnerability. To acknowledge his problems and work through them.

He made progress. He changed. 

And then, after just one night, all of those changes got up, packed their bags, and flushed themselves directly down the toilet.

* * *

Tony woke up after a few hours of restless sleep, and then proceeded to do what his old self used to do best.

That is, he ignored the problem for two whole days. 

Well, not so much ignored. More like actively sought distraction  _ from _ . He and Steve spent a lot of time with Thor (apparently even gods needed a little bit of R&R after snapping half the universe back into existence), and he kept himself busy helping everybody figure out what the hell they were meant to do now. 

And then there was Morgan. His lifeline, again, as she always had been. She understood very little of what was going on, didn’t realise just how much and how quickly everything had changed, and he very much intended on keeping it that way.

She could learn about Thanos, the Blip, the five years of a whole world in mourning later on, in history classes she would get bored in and hate studying for like a normal kid.

For now, he played with her, worked around her routine, defending her normality while doing his best to make sure there was a half-decent world waiting for her to grow up in. 

And his other kid -  _ the  _ other kid - did a great job of staying out of the way. 

Of course, Tony kept tabs on him. He checked in with Banner after they had done the first round of injections, asked Cho to keep an eye out while he helped doing odd jobs in the med-bay. But Tony steered clear. 

He let the kid do his thing, and he did his, burying himself in work, letting himself be distracted by Morgan, and trying desperately to ignore how much it was tearing him up inside.

* * *

“Peter asked after you,” Bruce said at one point, using that indirect manner of his that could either be reassuring or infuriating depending on the weather. 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Tony continued pottering around the kitchen, engrossed in the task of making Morgan a PB&J, savouring the normality of it.

“He, uh...he was wondering if he could use your workshop to fix up his suit.”

“Course he can. Do you have time to take him tomorrow?”

“Tony - ”

“Great. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

This really, really wasn’t how he wanted this to go. 

Yes, he knew it was a shitty thing to do, and yes, he felt  _ extremely  _ shitty for doing it. But nothing, not all the therapy sessions in the world, could have prepared him for this. It had taken five years to get over the last time he had held a crying Peter in his arms like that, and after the shitstorm of the other night, it would probably take him just as long this time too. 

Except this time, Peter was still here.

He was still very much alive, and still very much a kid, and still very much as stubborn as he was five years ago.

And he still had that innate drive to help, to make a difference. The drive that had pushed him onto that spaceship and made him follow after Tony with so much _trust,_ so much hope, even as they had flown up into the jaws of death. 

Which is why Tony probably shouldn't have been surprised when the alert came in.

_ “Sir, Peter Parker is currently putting on his suit and is preparing to leave the premises.” _

Tony hesitated for a moment, forcing down the urge to pretend he hadn’t heard F.R.I.D.A.Y talking (because yeah, that bordered on another level of shitty that he wasn’t prepared to ascend to yet).

“Bruce not around?”

_ “Dr Banner is asleep.” _

"Steve?"

_ "I...feel Peter would be more inclined to listen to you, sir." _

He sighed. “Can’t you just...lock him in?”

_ “The security protocols for Room 34C have been disabled.” _

“Little shit.”

He closed the email he was typing and stood up with a groan, heading down the corridor towards said little shit’s room. 

“Ditching the party so soon?”

Peter must have been too distracted to hear Tony coming, because he jerked back from the window with a startled yelp, jumping down and landing impossibly gracefully on the balls of his feet. He whirled around, the eyes of his mask wide.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” 

“A little birdie told me you were about to make a jailbreak.”

The eyes of the mask narrowed, and Peter tilted his head to look up at the ceiling. “A birdie, huh?”

Tony hummed. Shutting the door quietly behind him, he took another step into the room and leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest.

“Sorry to spoil your fun, kid, but no Spider-Manning. Not until the injections are done. Doc’s orders.”

Peter groaned, rubbing the top of his arm.

“I’m not Spider-Manning.”

“Ah. Sorry, my bad. The suit and everything must have thrown me off.”

“No, I’m not - ” 

Peter cut himself off, sucking in a sharp breath. He yanked off his mask and turned away, looking out of the still open window.

“I’m not, you know...planning on fighting crime or whatever.”

Tony’s brow furrowed. “Then what are you planning on doing?”

Peter looked down at his feet, wringing his mask in his hands. An awkward silence filled the space between them, and Tony shifted uncomfortably, desperate to break it but finding himself stuck for words.

“I just…I can’t find May.” 

Peter’s voice was quiet, wavering. Tony swallowed, the shitty feeling inside him doubling in size.

“Her phone company’s gone, so I can’t call her. She was - I checked the records, and she was...away, like me, but all the systems are down, so - so I don’t know if she came back or - you know, if she’s OK, or if she knows I'm back. I called the hospital where she works, but they’ve got so much going on, they don’t know, no-one knows - ”

Peter’s voice cracked, his eyes shining.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK.”

Tony moved forwards and put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, but Peter shrugged him off, furiously wiping away tears.

“I just - I’m useless,” Peter said. “I wanna help with everything but I can’t - I’m not, you know, I’m not important, there’s nothing I can do. I’m alone here.”

Tony swallowed. “You’re not alone, kid.”

“I am! Everyone’s got so much to do. Dr Banner’s busy, and, and  _ you’re  _ busy, like, you have a kid and I can’t just come barging in and drag you away from that, you know, and I’m stuck here because of the stupid injections - ”

“Pete, just - just listen for a minute.”

Peter looked up at him, with so much trust in his eyes. 

It was trust Tony knew he didn't deserve. 

God, he was such a prick. How could he have let this happen?

“It’s gonna be alright,” he said after a moment. “I’m busy, but the others can handle things. I’ll help, alright? You and me, we’re gonna find May.”

“I’ve _tried_ to find her,” Peter said. “I’ve been trying, for two days, but - "

_ "You  _ have been doing Google searches and bothering healthcare workers,” Tony said.  _ “I  _ will run facial recognition scans, send a few drones to have a look. I’ll even send a search party of Avengers, if you want.”

“And what about...what if she’s not...”

“She is. May is fine, I know it. Half the universe just popped back into existence, kid, we’re not even a fraction of the way through roll call. She’s out there, somewhere. We’ll find her, alright? Spider-Man can stand down.”

Peter exhaled shakily and nodded. He sat down on the bed heavily, like his legs had given out on him, and held his head in his hands.

Tony sat down next to him, and Peter sniffed, turning to look at him through his fingers.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“No. I’m the one who should be sorry. I should’ve realised sooner, helped you look - ”

“No, not - I didn’t mean that,” Peter said, straightening up to look at him properly. “I meant the other day, with the whole...you know, mutation thing.”

Tony hummed, shrugged. “Yeah, well.”

Peter bit his lip. “It’s just...I don’t know. It was just this thing that used to happen, and it was so terrifying, but, like, embarrassing at the same time? And I didn’t wanna drag anyone else into it. Especially you.”

“Especially me?”

Peter sighed. He looked down at his hands, fiddling with his mask until it was laid out across his palms, the eyes looking up at him.

“Every time it happened, I’d just think...I’d always worry that I was un-mutating or something. Like, some higher power had suddenly decided that I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t deserve to be a hero.”

“Kid, that’s not - you know that’s not true. It’s just mad science, it’s not up to destiny or whatever - ”

“Yeah, I know,” Peter said. “But that’s just...always what I’d think. The first time it happened was after the Vulture, after the accident on the ferry. After I screwed up.”

“After you did what you thought was  _ right _ ,” Tony said. 

He put a hand on Peter’s shoulder and squeezed hard. 

“You...you  _ are  _ Spider-Man, Peter. I can take away your suit, stop you going on patrol, but you’re still a hero. You made that extremely clear. May as well have written ‘I’m a hero, bitch, deal with it’ on the side of that plane you crashed.”

Peter didn’t laugh. He looked away, fixing his gaze resolutely at the opposite wall. 

“Kid, listen,” Tony sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...reacted, the way I did the other night. Seeing you like that, so soon after I just got you back...it freaked me out. A lot’s changed while you’ve been away. Things got boring, myself included.”

Peter huffed. “You’re Tony Stark, sir, you could never be boring.”

“You are sorely mistaken. Pepper bought some new placemats for the dining room last month and I was...genuinely ecstatic.”

To Tony’s relief, Peter laughed this time, the sound breathy and quiet.

“Point is, I forgot what this stuff was like,” Tony said, leaning slightly into Peter’s shoulder. “But then the other night I came in here and you were hurting and...it reminded me just how quickly everything can go to shit. How little control I really have, how quickly I can lose the things - the  _ people _ I care about. Pepper, Morgan. And you.”

Peter looked at him, brow furrowed.

“I’ve had five years to...you know, self-reflect. Think about what happened on Titan, about those last moments with you, and what I should have said.”

“It wasn’t your fault, sir.”

“But I didn’t say the things I should have,” Tony said. “And I didn’t the other night, either, even though I thought I might lose you again. I froze.”

Peter’s brow furrowed. “You don’t need to say anything. You’re not gonna lose me.”

“Yeah, well, forgive me for being worried for a second."

Peter let out a quiet chuckle. 

“Look, the past few days have been...I’m not even close to starting to process everything that’s happened,” Tony said. “But I know it was all worth it, because you’re back. A lot’s different, and I can’t imagine what it must be like for you, you know, on the other side of it. Things have changed, but you’re not alone, kid. I promise, I’m gonna - I’m gonna be there for you. I  _ am  _ there for you.”

Peter nodded. He sniffed, swallowed. 

“Thanks. I...um, I promise not to spring any more surprises on you.”

“You better,” Tony said. 

There was a beat, and then Tony was leaning over and pulling Peter into a hug. The kid stiffened for a moment, but slowly allowed himself to relax, breathing a relieved sigh into Tony’s shoulder.

“Since when do we do this hugging thing so much, sir?” 

Tony laughed, pulled away. “I’m a dad now, kid. Parenthood changes you, get used to it.”

Peter hummed. “When do I get to meet her?”

“Right after the Parker family reunion. C’mon, let’s go hack some satellites.”

* * *

The next day, Tony watched from the car as Peter was swept up into the arms of a hysterical May, and took a breath. 

Things might not be fine right now, but as long as Peter was back, Tony could believe they would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was chapter 2! I hope you guys liked it, if you did leave kudos and comments and if you have any constructive criticism, feel free to leave that too!
> 
> I'm considering making a series out of this, maybe a continuation of how the world starts to recover after the Blip (obviously including a meeting of Peter and Morgan) or maybe a series where Tony discovers more of the weird shit going on in Peter's body due to the spider bite.   
> Would you guys be interested in something like that? Please let me know, and if you have any ideas or prompts I will be more than willing to write something with them!


End file.
